Accession Data

Carnegiea gigantea

Common Name: Saguaro

Family: Cactaceae

Synonym(s): Cereus giganteus Engelm.

Country of Origin: southwestern USA, northern Mexico

Description: Large, columnar, ribbed stem to 60 feet high and 2 feet thick, ribs 12-30; spines 20-25, gray, needle-shaped to awl-shaped, 1/2 to 3 inches long, yellow in upper areoles; flowers white, to 5 inches long, closing next afternoon; fruit oblong, red, to 3 inches in diameter, edible. Spring and summer.

This is the largest member of the Cactaceae and can reach 12 tons in weight and alleged to live more than 200 years. Pollinated by birds and insects by day, bats by night.

Sometimes transplanted from the wild but not thriving in cultivation.

Uses: Edible fruit and seeds, wood formerly used in construction

Accession Data

Accession #: 202300049

Accession Date: 2023-03-14 00:00:00

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Location: 2213

Quantity: 2

Source: Mesa Garden seed

Provenance:

Pima County, Az, USA. Via Matt Opel from seed of Mesa Garden 76.1, sown March 9 2021

Classification

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Subclass: core eudicots

Order: Caryophyllales

Family: Cactaceae

SubFamily: Cactoideae

Tribe: Phyllocacteae

SubTribe: Echinocereinae

References

Hortus Third, LH Bailey Hortorium, 1976
Botanica, Turner & Wasson, 1997, CD-ROM Version
Image #00 (cropped) & #01 (original) by Ken Bosma [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons. Last accessed on Monday, March 05, 2018.

Images